


Something cute

by NinaFujisaki



Series: Jidge One-Shots [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Gen, Happens during S8, James treats Pidge how she deserves, Season 8, carnival episode, cute plush, it's more cuteness than romance, jidge, my beloved Jidge, the plush is that monster from the Voltron Show episode, you can see it as platonic if you want
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-08 20:24:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17987966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NinaFujisaki/pseuds/NinaFujisaki
Summary: James just found out that he doesn’t like to see the smallest of the paladins sad and all he wanted was to find a way to make her happy again.Out of nowhere, the stuffed paw against his hand felt surprisingly warm.





	Something cute

**Author's Note:**

> One more Jidge fic!! And this one being an idea that I love and had a lot od fun writing ^-^ Hope you guys enjoy it too!
> 
> The stuffed animal that James got at the carnival episode was that monster of the Voltron Show episode back s4.
> 
> Thanks to Fromageinterupted for beta this story!

“Can’t he stay with me only for one night?”

“Nope, not happening.” James just smirked at Kinkade, hugging again the big plushy meerakeet that he had won back the carnival earlier, in a competition with his friend. “Come on, I won _her_ fairly.”

Ryan snorted and seemed about to reply but Nadia interrupted him, hugging him by the arm.

“You know he’s right, Kinkade. Beside you already have me to hug tonight.” She winked playfully.

James didn’t even want to think about what Nadia meant with that, and he honestly didn’t care about it when she started dragging her boyfriend by the arm to the ATLAS cafeteria.

“Aren’t you coming?” Leiffsdotir asked him.

“I will catch up with you guys in one minute, just have to put her in my room,” he answered indicating the yelmore.

Ina just nodded before heading in the same direction Ryan and Nadia had already headed in. James left the opposite way. He made it to the ship’s sleeping quarters, and was almost at his own bedroom when, turning into the hall, he came across someone.

It wasn’t hard to recognize her, if the petite form or the unruly but organized brown hair wouldn’t be enough, then the green uniform would be more than enough to anyone in this ship to know who she was.

The Green Paladin, commander Holt’s daughter, the smartest person in that ship: Pidge.

Katie Holt.

It had been a while since the Voltron team and the MFEs had started to work together on some missions and since then both teams have been trying their hardest to get along with each other. So James, a smile on his face, raised his hand, about to greet the girl.

Before he could to do that, though, James stopped when his eyes reached her face.

During the meetings, James had always seen Katie with the tough, determined stare that came from someone who was confident in their knowledge of the topic at hand, and though there were moments where he had seen her smile and look worried, he had never seen her with that expression.

Katie was sad, to say the least. Her body was a little shrunken making her seem even smaller, her honeyed eyes, staring at a door at the end of the hallway, seemed to be in agonizing pain and when he got the way (she was clenching the fabric of the uniform on her chest tightly,  James wondered if she somehow got hurt at the carnival.

Going through his memories for some moment or something that might have hurt her (and finding nothing) he realized that she hadn’t noticed he was there yet. Weird. She definitely wasn’t alright.

“Hey,” James finally spoke, causing the girl jump in surprise and look at him as if questioning how long he had been there. “Are you okay?”

Katie just blinked before look away, “Yes, of course,” she said firmly, but the hand rubbing the back of her neck said otherwise. “I was just… Never mind.” Her stare fell again.

James of course did not believe in her, but he couldn’t simply insist that she tell him, someone she barely knew, about something that seemed to be very personal. Maybe he could suggest her to go to the med-bay? Would offering himself to listen to her if there was something bothering her be too much?

He really didn’t know what to do.

“You got a prize.”

The sudden phrase took him out of his thoughts, following Katie's gaze to his right hand, where he held the plush Meerakeet by its paw. Suddenly, James felt a little embarrassed to be carrying that.

“Y-yeah I won a competition versus a friend,” he smiled nervously, uselessly trying to hide the animal behind him.

However, that suddenly reminded James the many times he saw Katie through the day, coming and going all the area of the carnival, playing many games. Unconsciously, he raised an eyebrow.

“Did you not get anything? I thought I saw you with a weird builder’s hat.” He really didn’t mean to offend, but that thing _was_ weird.

James, though, wanted to punch himself when Katie’s eyes showed hurt once more. He was going to apologies when she started, her voice low:

“No, that… That was for…” She sighed, staring at the ground. “That was not for me.”

Once again James didn’t know what to say. Actually, he didn’t know if he understood the situation at all. The Paladins were a strange group to him, the reason why he was the only of the MFEs who didn’t have any kind of friendship with any of them. But that didn’t mean that he wished bad things for them. Not for Katie especially.

James just found out that he doesn’t like to see the smallest of the paladins sad. Like, that was something that was bothering him hard and all he wanted was to find a way to bring her back to her normal. He had to find a way to make her happy.

Out of nowhere, the stuffed paw against his hand felt surprisingly warm.

“Here.”

Katie just blinked again but this time her eyes were glued to the meerakeet that James was handing her.

“… What?” She lifted her eyes at him, confused.

The way her nose twisted was kinda cute.

“It’s for you.” He was still holding the plush out at her. “It’s not like I wanted to get he- _it!_ ” corrected quickly “It was just the result of beating Kinkade earlier.”

_Liar_ , he wanted that prize since he had laid his eyes on it, but he couldn’t tell that to her, not when Katie, hesitantly, finally got the animal from his hands. She had to hug it with her whole arms to hold it right, almost disappearing behind the plush.

Okay, that was very cute.

Same with the smile she gave him, to which James couldn’t help but smile back. Her eyes weren’t sparking as he saw them doing sometimes, but she surely wasn’t sad anymore.

“Thank you, James.” Katie stopped, thinking. “Can I call you James? Is this okay?”

“Of course,” he didn’t even hesitate.

Nodding, she gave him a last smile.

“I gotta go now, my mom is probably waiting for me but,” she hugged the meerakeet tighter. “Thank you again.”

“You’re welcome.”

James stayed there while watching her go through the hallway, hearing her murmuring something like ‘Well, it’s not something sparkly but it’s something cute’ before turn the left, on the way to the greenhouse. He again didn’t know what she meant with that but he didn’t care this time. He made it, he made her get better, and that smile was because of him.

It was even worth the scolding he would take from Ryan for giving the toy to someone else and Nadia's taunts about him giving a stuffed animal for a cute girl.


End file.
